


Adoption

by Toad_Town



Series: Dads [9]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Adoption, Autistic Satya "Symmetra" Vaswani, Awkward Sex Talk, Canon Autistic Character, Cybernetics, Dad 76, Dad Reaper, Depression, Domestic Fluff, Drinking, F/F, F/M, Fluff, HOO BOY IT'S A LONG ONE, I think that's everything, Insomnia, M/M, Mentioned parental abuse, Nightmares, Parties, Past Abuse, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Recreational Drug Use, Sex Talk, Suburban AU, Therapy, Trans Character, Trans Sombra (Overwatch), Underage Drinking, Weed, a little bit, archive where the hell is my presets option, date, don't take other people's prescription drugs kids, family au, fear of thunder, four parter, it's gonna get dark soon, just one scene though, just wait, probably forgot a lot, stealing from the medicine cabinet, stork-drop adoption, such is life, the gay talk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-13
Updated: 2017-09-20
Packaged: 2018-12-27 18:56:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12087291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Toad_Town/pseuds/Toad_Town
Summary: Jack and Gabriel welcome a fourth child into their family





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> In case you didn't read the previous works: go back and at least read the last two.  
> I meant to introduce Pharah earlier but I kept forgetting and now here she is.

_ Hana: Hey _

_ Hana: Wanna talk _

_ Lucio: I was just about to go to sleep _

_ Lucio: But I’ll stay up for you :) _

_ Lucio: What’s up? _

_ Hana: Nothing much, just don’t feel like sleeping tonight. _

_ Lucio: What do you mean? _

_ Hana: I slept last night, so I’m good. _

_ Lucio: …that’s not how that works _

_ Hana: It’s worked for the past week and a half, it’s all good. _

_ Lucio: Hana, what’s wrong? _

_ Hana: Nothing. _

_ Lucio: Hana, no one sleeps only every other night because nothing’s wrong. Why aren’t you sleeping? _

_ Hana: Sleeping sucks, I could be playing games. _

_ Lucio: Your starcraft team has been bugging you since you got back from the hospital to play and you haven’t logged in once. _

_ Lucio: And on that topic, you’re barely on the server at all anymore. _

_ Hana: Can we talk about something else? _

_ Lucio: Once you tell me what the problem is. _

_ Hana: Why do you care??? _

_ Lucio: I’m supposed to be your *boyfriend*, Hana! I’m worried about you, and I can only hope you’d be worried about me too. _

He sees the typing notification appear, then it goes away. She’s quiet for a few moments.

_ Lucio: Wouldn’t you? _

She goes offline.

He stares half-broken at his phone, then shuts it off and angrily turns over in his bed, trying to get some sleep.

Hana stares at her computer, almost as upset. She makes a promise to herself to apologize once she’s thinking straight, then sneaks downstairs to get more coffee.

She looks at her computer. The array of games coating her desktop still doesn’t appeal to her, so she spends the night on reddit and twitter. A few of her followers ask when she’ll be streaming next, and she makes a vague, empty promise of “soon”.

It’s barely midnight. The worst part about staying up all night is just how long it takes. She finds a playlist of old AVGN videos and settles on that.

Around two, she has trouble keeping her eyes open. She struggles and drinks more coffee, but her brain pulls her into her own unconscious.

She’s in the car accident again, screaming. Her scars feel like they’re on fire. Lucio stands a couple feet away, shouting “I’m supposed to be your boyfriend, Hana!”

She’s jolted awake when the AVGN starts screaming obscenities through her headphones. She pauses the video and switches back to messenger.

_ Hana: Of course I would. _

_ Hana: I’m so sorry, if you were acting like this I’d be worried and I’m glad you’re worried about me. _

Lucio only managed to get half asleep, and jolts awake when he hears his phone go off.

_ Lucio: It’s ok _

_ Lucio: Can we talk about it? _

_ Hana: Ever since I got home, when I try to go to sleep I have nightmares, so I only sleep every other night, and when I do it’s only for a couple hours. _

_ Lucio: Jesus _

_ Lucio: Have you told your dads about it yet? _

_ Hana: Not yet. _

_ Hana: I can deal with it for now, there’s no need to get them worried. _

_ Lucio: If you say so. _

_ Lucio: Just promise me you’ll go to them if you need to. _

_ Hana: I will. _

_ Lucio: Are you going to go to sleep now? _

_ Hana: Just woke up. Fuck no. _

_ Hana: Wanna watch some movies on rabbit? _

_ Lucio: Sure! _

_ Lucio: Just tonight though, I’m not encouraging this. _

 

It’s the next evening, and Hana’s dreading going to sleep again. She tries to argue with herself that technically she slept last night, but a half-hour nightmare session doesn’t count.

She goes incognito on her phone and looks up medicine that causes dreamless sleep. One of the names sounds familiar. She pockets her phone and works her way up to the upstairs bathroom. After locking herself in, she opens the medicine cabinet. Sure enough, she sees one of her dads’ pill bottles from the VA with the same name she just found.

_ Recommended use: For persons 18 and older, take one to two pills before going to sleep. Do not exceed 3 pills in under a 24 hour period. For persons 18 and under, consult a doctor before use. _

She shrugs, deciding it’ll probably be fine. She’ll only take one. She pockets it, makes her way down the stairs, and wraps it in a gum wrapper in her room. By ten thirty, she’s completely exhausted. She takes the sleeping pill without a second thought and prepares to drift off.

She wakes up almost twelve hours later. For the first time in almost two weeks, she’s completely rested. She eases herself out of bed and onto the floor, and heads downstairs for breakfast.

“Finally sleeping in again?” Jack asks.

“Yeah, looks like it.”

“Good. Genji’s finally getting out of the hospital today, so Jesse and Sombra are going to visit them, if you want to tag along.”

“I think I’m just going to stay home.”

“Alright. But you really should get out of the house for a little bit soon. You’ve been looking really pale lately.”

“Moving around kinda hurts lately, dad,” she says, with a bit more attitude than either of them would have liked.

“I’m not saying to go out for a jog or anything. At least go sit outside for a bit or go out with your friends. We’re worried about you.”

“Hm.”

 

As Lena still refuses to drive, Jack drives her and his kids over to the park where they’re celebrating Genji’s return.

“Why not do it at your house?” Jesse asks.

Hanzo shrugs. “Genji likes it here,” he says, which isn’t strictly a lie, but he feels guilty as if he told one.

For the time being, Genji’s wheelchair-bound, but undergoing physical therapy so he can eventually walk on his own. His face is heavily scarred, but still recognizable. One of his arms has been amputated and replaced with a cybernetic one, and many of his shattered bones were replaced with metal.

“So, you’re a cyborg now, huh?” Jesse asks.

“Looks like it,” Genji replies, his face contorted into as close to a grin as it can get.

“Pretty badass.”

Lena comes sprinting up. She’d recently gotten her stitches out, leaving only a scar and a bruise on her head. “You’re okay!” she cheers.

“New and improved! Getting through airport security will be a chore now, I suppose. What’s been happening while I was away?”

“Nothing much, really. Lena, Emily, Hanzo, and I have been hanging out a lot, going on some adventures. Hana hasn’t been holding up that well, I don’t think she’s sleeping. Or gaming.”

Angela can’t help but overhear. “Hana hasn’t been gaming?”

“Nope. Actually, let me check real quick.” He pulls out the steam app on his phone, finds his sister’s profile, and checks the “recently played” tab. “Yeah, it says just a couple hours in the last two weeks, and most of them were before the accident.”

“And she hasn’t been sleeping either?”

“Yeah, she’s not looking so good. Really bad dark circles under her eyes.”

Angela frowns. “I should probably talk to her soon.”

Genji’s having a hard time hearing her words. He’s had a minor crush on her since he moved here, but since she saved his life he’s having a hard time not seeing her with wings and a halo and heavenly light shining behind her.

Sombra appears as if from nowhere. “Apparently uncle Rein might be moving to town,” she says as Angela turns away.

“Where’d you hear that?” Jesse asks.

“Overheard dads talking about it the other night.”

“And you said moving?”

“Yep. So we’ll probably be going to school with Fareeha next year.”

Jesse groans. “What’s the matter?” Lena asks.

“We couldn’t stand her growing up,” Sombra explains. “We haven’t seen her in a while, though, so you never know, maybe she’s cool now.”

 

That night, Hana sneaks upstairs to get another sleeping pill from the medicine cabinet. Just as she’s starting to leave, Gabriel calls everyone downstairs, and she almost jumps three feet in the air. She calms herself down, realizing he couldn’t possibly have any idea she was taking his medicine, and breathes as deep as she can manage on her way downstairs. She pockets the pill and joins her siblings on the couch. Her dads sit on their recliners, facing them.

“Okay,” Jack starts. “Hana, can you take the headphones off?” She obliges. “All of you probably know by now, but dad and I have been wanting to adopt another kid. Jesse and Sombra, you’re going off to college next year, and quite frankly, we’re not ready to be empty-nesters yet.”

Gabe picks up from there. “Now, instead of going through the standard adoption process like we did with Hana and Sombra, we’re going with shortlist adoption like we did with Jesse. What shortlist means is that we have to be read for an adoption at a moment’s notice. With Jesse, we got him within a few hours of his birth, but there’s a chance that we’ll get an older child who’s been emancipated or taken from a parent for one reason or another.”

“So we could get someone our age?” Sombra asks.

“It’s very unlikely,” Gabe answers.

“Most shortlist adoptions occur when a mother wants their child to be adopted right after their birth, and it’s less likely for a child to be put into shortlist the older they get.”

“Why now?” Sombra asks. “These two were just in a car accident.”

“But we’re fine now,” Jesse interjects.

“Exactly,” Jack says. “We had actually just finished meeting with a social worker a couple of hours before the accident, and were planning on telling you when you all got home. However, clearly that couldn’t happen, so we waited until you’ve all recovered. We know we’re all ready now.”

The pill in Hana’s pocket feels like it weighs a thousand pounds and burns at a thousand degrees.

“Where are they going to sleep?” Sombra asks.

“If they’re a boy, Jesse’s room, and if they’re a girl, Hana’s room.”

“Wait, what?” Hana asks.

“You have the bigger room,” Sombra gloats.

“We put ourself back on the shortlist this morning,” Jack says. “So we could have to wait a couple weeks or this could happen very soon.”

 

“Genji, are you drunk?” Hanzo asks. “You’re on painkillers, you can’t be drinking!”

“Of course I’m not drunk!”

Hanzo suddenly recognizes the smell filling his room. “Ah.”

“Dad said he didn’t want to save my life. He said it was too expensive and I wasn’t going to be of use to the family.”

“I know, brother.”

“But you convinced him otherwise?”

“I did my best.”

“He made me promise to join the family business.”

“I know. I made the suggestion.”

“We’re not joining the family business, are we?”

“Of course not.”

“We’re running away, aren’t we?”

Hanzo sighs. “That is looking like the best option.”

“What about Jesse?”

 

A couple days later, a beat up station wagon parks outside the Reyes-Morrison household. Sombra watches her hulking beast of an uncle unfold himself out of the car, and open the door for his wife.

“Oh shit, check this out.” She waves her brother over as Fareeha gets out of the car. She’s radically different from her last visit, she now sports a short, almost spiky haircut not too different from Lena’s. She wears an  _ Imagine Dragons _ t-shirt with the sleeves cut off, and jean shorts cut a little too far up her thigh.

“Dad, Reinhardt’s here!” Sombra calls.

A few minutes later, Jack’s happily wrapped in a bear hug from his brother that would easily crush a lesser man. “It has been too long, Jack!” he roars in a way that makes the kids wonder how their aunt isn’t deaf yet.

“Definitely! Glad you’re coming here. Want to come in for breakfast, or just head out now?”

“Early bird gets the worm! Let’s head out now.”

Jack joins Reinhardt and Ana in their search for a house, leaving Fareeha with his kids.

“You’re cool with me hanging around, right? I know we annoyed the crap out of each other when we were younger.”

“It’s all good,” Jesse says. “I’ll get my friend Lena, we’ll give you the grand tour.”

“Sounds good.”

Sombra knocks on Hana’s room, where she’s sitting at her computer with purple semicircles embedded under her eyelids. “Did you sleep?”

“No.”

“Wanna come give Fareeha the special Lena and Jesse tour?”

“No.”

“Lame. You should get some sleep. Or at least eat something.”

“Maybe.”

When she walks back into the living room, Jesse’s coordinating a decently sized exploration group.

“You go by Sombra now, right?”

“Yep.”

“Cool.”

“Alright, we’re meeting up at Dunkin so everyone can get coffee to wake up and then we’ll give you the grand tour.”

“Who’s coming?” Sombra asks.

“Definitely Lena, and Hanzo, probably Efi, Angela, and Amelie, and Genji’s going to try to come out but he probably can’t.”

By the time they make it to Dunkin, Lena’s already there and in the middle of her second coffee. Jesse notes this. “Lena, you’re starting to have a serious problem,” he jokes.

“Nah, this is nothing. So is this your cousin?”

“Hey,” Fareeha waves.

Angela shows up next, and is almost instantly enamored with the girl hanging around her friends. In the two and a half minutes it takes for her to order her coffee, she’s already imagined falling in love, going to college, getting married, and buying a house with her.

Fareeha, meanwhile, is pleasantly surprised that the pretty girl is apparently going to be spending the day with them. She introduces herself, and swears she feels something when their hands touch.

 

The next night, Jesse’s watching a Clint Eastwood marathon on TV when he gets a text from Genji. It’s a screenshotted snap from one of the junkers of what seems to be a pretty intense party. He immediately receives another, this one zoomed in on the corner of the picture. He can see his sister’s blurry face and blank expression in the background.

_ Jesse: Where is that? _

_ Weeb: A party _

_ Jesse: Which one?? _

_ Weeb: Androxus, I think _

_ Jesse: ewww _

He texts Hana to confirm.

_ Jesse: Hana _

_ Jesse: Where are you? _

_ Hana: I tplf uuu _

_ Hana: Wnnt 4 wlk _

Jesse’s first instinct is to drive straight over to Androxus’s house, but his dads are out shopping for kid stuff and said that either him or Sombra had to stay in the house in case a social worker came by. And of course Sombra had ran off as soon as he said that, trapping Jesse in the house. He tries texting Sombra a few times, but remembers that she’s at a movie. He wracks his brain trying to think of who else he could reach.

 

Angela and Fareeha are both very much enjoying exploring each others mouths, only to be interrupted by an annoying vibration from Angela’s phone.

_ Jesse: Angela!! _

_ Jesse: You’re at the Androxus party, right? _

“You should probably take that,” Fareeha says, trying to mask how much she doesn’t want her to take that.

_ Angela: Yeah what’s up _

_ Jesse: Can you check to see if Hana’s there? _

“It’s your cousin,” Angela says. “Apparently Hana’s here somewhere.”

“Yeah, make sure she’s ok,” Fareeha says. “Hurry back.”

“I will.” She hurries out of the room, asking partygoers if they’d seen an out of place Korean sophomore anywhere.

She eventually finds her alone in the backyard, leaning against a tree with her knees pressed to her chest. She kneels down to talk to her.

“Hana, are you alright?”

She shakes her head but doesn’t answer.

“Why are you here?”

“Wanted to get drunk,” she says, and when she opens her mouth she can smell the beers she drank.

“Why?”

“I’ve been a mess ever since the crash, and I thought this would help.”

“Did it?”

“It’s so much worse.” Her voice wavers, foretelling the incoming tears. “I don’t want to be here anymore.”

“That’s ok, I can take you home.”

She shakes her head violently and the tears start to fall. “I don’t want to be alive anymore.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know!”

“It’s just the alcohol talking.”

“I thought alcohol was supposed to make you feel better.”

“No. It just makes you not like you.”

“That’s what I wanted… but it’s just worse.”

“Can you tell me how you’ve been feeling since the crash?”

“I haven’t been sleeping… I haven’t been wanting to do anything… I’ve barely talked to Lucio… I’m so scared to go back to school… I almost turned back on the walk over here three times.” It’s hard for Angela to understand her between the tears and the way she’s slurring her words.

“Come on, I’ll take you home.” As she helps Hana to her feet, she finds Fareeha on messenger.

_ Angela: Need to take Hana home _

_ Angela: I’ll be back soon _

_ Fareeha: My balls are fucking blue, Zeigler _

_ Fareeha: You’d better make this up to me _

_ Fareeha: ;) _

_ Angela: Whatever you’d like, my dear. _

_ Fareeha: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) _

“I don’t want to drive,” Hana slurs.

“You’re in no state to walk,” she says, opening the door for her.

Hana slowly lowers herself into the passenger’s seat.

“I’ll drive slow.”

“My dads are adopting another kid,” she says abruptly.

“Really?”

“They’ve wanted to for a while and they’re doing it now because they think we’re all ok. But I’m not.”

“You haven’t told them any of this?”

She shakes her head. “I thought I could handle it.”

“You can handle it, just not on your own. You’ll be ok.”   
“How do you know?”

“Because your friends and family love you and we all want to help you get better. And the first step is telling your dads. And not sneaking off to parties and getting drunk.”

They’re home way sooner than Hana thinks they should be, and Angela walks her to the door. Jesse quickly answers it.

“Angela, thank you so much,” he says.

“Anytime.”   
“What was she doing there?”

“I think she should be the one to tell you. I have to get going.”

“Alright, anything I can do to make this up to you?”

_ I think your cousin’s got it covered _ , she wants to say, but instead tells him she’ll think of something.

 

Hana sits across from her dads at the kitchen table, feeling like she’s being interrogated. She tells her dads about how she hasn’t been sleeping, about the nightmares, about how she’s barely been talking to any of her friends, about how anxious she’s been, about going and getting drunk at the party. She doesn’t tell them about stealing Gabe’s sleeping pills or how depressed the alcohol made her.

Her dads take turns hugging her with one arm and she starts to cry again. This time, though, she’s not crying out of fear or sadness. These are tears of relief.

 

“Alright, we’ve received recommendations from several people that doctor Zenyatta—” Gabe starts.

“Zenyatta?” Hana asks, incredulous.

“Yes, Zenyatta. He’s apparently the best therapist in the area, and dad and I want you to meet with him privately once a week.”

“Okay.”

“I’m also going to pretend not to notice that almost a week’s worth of sleeping pills have vanished from the medicine cabinet.” Hana’s insides freeze. “However, if more start to disappear, I just might start to wonder where they’ve been going.”

“Okay,” she says as nonchalantly as possible.

“And no more going to parties.”

“Wasn’t planning on it.”

Their conversation is cut short by a rapping at the door. Gabe answers it, and immediately calls for Jack to come downstairs. Jesse and Sombra also come to see what the commotion is.

The family steps onto the porch in the warm July evening to greet a well dressed social worker outside a black car.

“—CPS took her from her father after repeated abuse, and her mother emancipated her to keep her out of the foster care system. Before we can make anything official, I need both of your verbal confirmation that you want to do this.”

Gabe and Jack both look at Hana, who nods. Both of them say yes as soon as she does, and the social worker unlocks the car. A scared looking Indian seven year old emerges from the car. There’s a bruise on her face and scars running down her arm.

“This is Satya,” she says.


	2. First night

While the kids work on making Hana’s room suitable for Satya to live in, the dads give Satya a tour of the house and get her fed. The three of them sit around the table, eating the pizza they’d ordered earlier.

“Why are you two men?” Satya asks.

“Well, most parents are men and women, but sometimes parents are two men or two women,” Gabe explains.

“But why?”

“It’s just the way some people are,” Jack says. “Like Hana’s a girl that likes boys and Jesse’s a boy that likes girls and boys, and their friend Lena’s a girl that likes girls.”

“Oh.” she takes a bite. “My dad said that men shouldn’t get married to other men.”

The two men share a look. “Well, what do you think?”

She shrugs. “I dunno. I guess it’s too late anyway since you’re already married.”

“Well around here, most people don’t really mind who you’re married to. We all think love is love no matter who you’re with.”

She nods, as if she understands but hasn’t decided whether or not to agree yet.

“So,” Jesse says, “bet you weren’t expecting your new roommate to be seven.”

“As long as she doesn’t wake up crying at the worst hours of the night, I can deal.”

When they finish up in her room, she crashes down on her bed and takes out her phone.

_ Hana: New kid’s here _

_ Lucio: ??? _

_ Hana: Oh shit _

_ Hana: Did I not tell you? _

_ Lucio: If it happened in the last couple days, probably not _

_ Hana: Okay _

_ Hana: One, I’m really sorry about going off the radar lately _

_ Hana: Two, _

She tells him everything from stealing her dad’s medicine, getting drunk at the party, her cousin moving, and finally the new arrival at their house.

_ Lucio: Wait _

_ Lucio: Your cousin’s here? _

_ Hana: … _

_ Lucio: But seriously, that’s a lot of information. _

_ Hana: I know _

_ Hana: I wish I told you earlier. _

_ Lucio: Why didn’t you? _

_ Hana: I don’t know. I’m sorry. _

She hears a tapping at the door, and it opens slightly. She sees the little girl peeking through. “Come on in.”

“Jack said I’m sharing your room.”

“Yep, this is it.” She walks in, cautiously observing it and her.

_ Listen here you little shits (Jesse, Lena, Hanzo, Angela, Fareeha --Active four hours ago) _

_ Cowman: Looks like we’ve got a little sister _

_ Lena the Hedgehog: Already? _

_ Cowman: We haven’t formally adopted her yet, but she got dropped off a little while ago. Apparently she’s going to be living with us for a little while first. _

_ Cowman: Also she’s seven _

_ Cowman: Probably should’ve mentioned that. _

_ Fareeha: You’re adopting a seven year old? _

_ Cowman: Yeah _

_ Cowman: Social Worker said she was abused by her dad and they had to take her away. _

_ Handsoap: What’s she like? _

_ Cowman: Not sure yet. _

For about forty minutes, Hana sits in her room, unsure of exactly what to do. Satya’s been engrossed in a book Gabe gave her, not exactly giving Hana an opening to meet her new sister. Fortunately, a familiar smell starts to fill the house.

“Dad baked cookies, come with me,” Hana says.

“My mom says I’m not supposed to leave my room past eight thirty.”

“Well my dad says ‘I baked cookies, come and get them’. You’ll be fine.”

“Promise?” Satya asks. She doesn’t make eye contact, but from what Hana can tell there’s a sort of worry in her face.

“Of course. Now come on.” She gets off her bed and follows Hana downstairs, where the rest of the family’s already eating chocolate chip cookies and watching game shows in the living room.

“There you are,” Jack says. He offers her the tupperware they filled with cookies.

Satya takes one and studies it. “I’ve never had one of these before.”

“Never?” Jesse asks.

She shakes her head. “Mom said I couldn’t.”

She and Hana sit down on the couch. “What happened to your arm?” she asks Jesse.

“Hana and I were in a car accident earlier this month,” he says.

She turns to Hana. “Is that why your face is like that? And why you have that thing in your bed to make you sit up?”

“Yup, that’s it.”

“What about your arm?” Jesse asks.

She looks at her arm. It’s covered in scars and bent a bit weird. She shrugs. “I don’t remember. Mom and dad won’t tell me. When you were in the accident, did you guys hit the car or did the other car hit you?”

Jesse and Hana are speechless for a second, surprised by how unfazed she was and how easily she changed topic. “We got hit,” Jesse says.

“Were you driving?”

“No, our friend Lena was.”

“Is that the girl that likes other girls?”

Jesse can’t help but smile and suppress a chuckle. “Yeah, that’s her. Where’d you hear that?”

“Jack told me. He was explaining about how not all boys like girls and not all girls like boys.” She turns to Hana. “And since both of them like each other and Jesse likes girls and boys, does that make you the weird one?” Before she can answer, she turns to Sombra. “Although I’m not sure about you yet.”   
“I’m definitely weird, trust me,” she laughs.

“How so?”

“I was born a boy.”

“But you’re a girl now?”

“Sure am.”

“How?”

“Sometimes your mind doesn’t feel the same way your body is.”

“So you changed it?”

“I’m in the middle of it.”

Satya nods. “Good.” Then she turns to Hana. “So since you’re a girl that’s always been a girl who doesn’t like girls, you’re the weird one here?”

“Guess so.”

She looks like she’s writing the information down in her head, and nods slightly when she finishes. “May I have another cookie?”

“Of course.”

When everyone winds down and goes to bed, Hana opens her desk drawer and unfolds a piece of paper. In it are the last two pills she took from her father’s medicine cabinet. She makes sure Satya isn’t looking, and takes one. She’s aware that in a few short nights she’ll have to face the nightmares again, but shoves that thought away.

“Are most nights like this?” Satya asks.

“Sometimes.”

“Are they ever really bad?”

“Almost never.”

“When have they been?”

“Well, if one of us comes home having doing something really bad, dads will get mad, obviously. And since we’re siblings and kinda have to live together we’ll annoy each other a lot and sometimes we’ll get really angry, but we usually don’t, and we always get over it quickly.”

“Would you ever want to live anywhere else?”

“When I’m an adult and ready to move out, yeah. But now, I wouldn’t dream of it.”

Satya logs the information. “Okay.”

“Good night.”

Satya’s aware of the phrase, but this is the first time she can remember it being said to her. “Thank you.”


	3. Nightmare

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fair warning, there's a sex talk scene near the end. Between a fifteen year old and an HFA seven year old.

Satya wakes up in her first morning, briefly confused. She’s woken up by gentle sunlight instead of someone shouting, and the only thing she can hear is birds, cars, and gentle breathing. She finds her book and waits for someone to tell her she can leave the room.

After a couple minutes, she looks over to the girl whose room she’s sharing. Her face is apparently scared from the car accident, she’s seen her neighbors or even her siblings get similar scars in much more violent ways. She seems to love her parents a lot, even though she’s not related to them. She supposes she could understand that, and if she finds Hana trustworthy then she could probably trust Jack and Gabe.

She hasn’t found any reason not to trust Hana, she seems nice so far, but she’s met a lot of people that seemed nice at first who would then just hurt her. She very much wants to trust her, but makes herself wait until she shows her true colors.

Then there’s Jesse. She hasn’t really talked to him much, but he seems friendly. She can’t imagine her real brother talking and laughing with someone he just met. She’ll wait a bit longer to decide if he’s genuine.

Sombra seems like the biggest mystery. She’s never met anyone who became a girl in the middle of their life. She also couldn’t really get a read on her. So the jury’s still out on all of them.

Then there’s the new house. Normally she hates big changes like this, but considering what happened at her old house, she feels a lot safer here. As long as she doesn’t get moved around too much, she’ll probably like it.

Hana wakes up not too long after. “Morning,” she says.

“Morning,” Satya replies.

“How’d you sleep?”

“Fine. Why are you asking?”

Hana shrugs. “It’s your first night here, wanted to make sure you slept well. How’re you feeling?”

“Hungry, I guess.”

“Alright, then, let’s go find something to eat.” She starts pulling herself out of bed.  
“Can we? Are we allowed?”

“Yeah, of course.” She stands up, and Satya follows her.

“I was never allowed to leave my room until my mom let me out. Sometimes I couldn’t leave until noon.”

Once again, Hana’s shocked by how nonchalantly she can talk about stuff like that. She leads her to the kitchen and looks in the fridge and freezer. “Want frozen waffles?”

“I’ve never had them.”

“Want to try?”

“Sure.” Hana sticks two in the toaster and they sit at the table.

“How old were you when you got adopted?” Satya asks.

“A couple weeks.”

“Was anyone else adopted as a kid?”

“No, we were all babies. Do you want to get adopted?”

“I don’t know yet. I don’t think I want to go home, though.”

“I’m sure you won’t have to.”

“Promise?”

“Well, I can’t promise, it’s all up to dads. I can’t imagine they’d send you back there though.”

The toaster goes off, and Hana pulls herself back up to get the waffles.

 

That afternoon, Hana has her first therapy session with Doctor Zenyatta.

“So, you say you were in a car crash?” His voice is almost monotone and has a strangely mechanical quality to it.

“Yeah, a couple weeks ago.”

“Corner of Numbani and Dorado streets?”

“Yeah, how’d you know?”

“It was right outside my house, I was the one who called 911.”

“Oh. Wow.”

“Were you the one screaming?”

“Yeah, that was me.” She looks slightly ashamed by this.

“Good. I’ve always believed things like that… screaming, crying, and the like… to be nature’s way of letting out the things trapped inside you.” He lets out a single chuckle. “And, of course, it makes sure other people can find and help you.”

Hana nods, unsure of how to respond.

“There were several people in the crash, correct?”

“Yeah.”

“Tell me about them.”  
“Okay.” She starts with Jesse.

Describing her friends takes up two thirds of the session, and when she’s done she’s not entirely sure why she did it.

“So you’re here because the crash changed you?” the doctor asks.

“Yeah, I guess you could put it like that. The day I came home I was just generally depressed, but that kinda came and went. That night I had really bad nightmares, so I spent a week and a half sleeping every other night. Even when I did sleep, it was only for a couple hours at a time. I kinda neglected my boyfriend for a while and got really anxious from time to time. I also haven’t been playing games as much as I did. After I couldn’t stand not sleeping anymore, I found some of my dad’s pills that he got from the VA that were supposed to cause dreamless sleep and I’ve been using them for a little while, but I got caught and I’m stopping after tonight.”

Zenyatta scribbles all of this down. “Have you noticed any avoidance to cars or anything involved in the crash?”

“Yeah, for a while I got kinda anxious when I thought about leaving the house so I didn’t do it for a while, but I’ve definitely been avoiding riding in cars in general. I’ll do it if I have to, but I feel like I’m gonna be sick the whole time. I also deleted the song we were singing during the crash and a bunch of others like it from my playlist, and I haven’t been to the corner where the crash happened.”

She ends the session talking about the horrible experience she had at the party, as well as Satya’s recent appearance. Zenyatta says he wants to talk more next week, but the bottom of his clipboard reads, in large, bold letters, PTSD.

 

One night later, Hana’s walk to her room feels like the walk to her execution. She’s tempted to stay up all night, but she doesn’t want to keep Satya up or set a bad example for her. Her only choice is to try to go to sleep and take it.

Satya’s already in bed, but awake. “Whenever I asked my dad where babies come from, he told me that it’s not something girls should be asking about,” she says abruptly. “Which never made much sense to me because my mom must’ve known the answer, but when I asked her she wouldn’t tell me.”

“Yeah, it’s definitely something girls should know about,” Hana says, a little worried about where the conversation is going.

“So I asked Jack and Gabe, and they explained it, but I still have some questions. Can I ask you?”

 _Oh jeez, here we go,_ she thinks. “Yeah, go ahead.”

“So they said men have penises where girls have vaginas, and women can get pregnant when men put their penis in the vagina. And then they told me I shouldn’t do that until I’m an adult or even older, and then Gabe said something about kicking something and Jack told him not to say that but that he was right.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“So if a guy stuck their penis in one of our vaginas, we’d get pregnant.”

“I might. You’re too young.”

“Why?”

She does her best to try to explain periods.

“So because you get your period, you can get pregnant, but I don’t have mine yet, so I can’t?”

“Exactly.”

“What’s getting your period like?”  
“Awful.”

“Okay, so people have sex by putting penises in vaginas, but what about Jesse’s friend Lena? If only boys have penises, and she doesn’t like boys, how does she have sex? Can she?”

She tries to find the right answer. “You’ll find out when you’re older.”

“I’ll just ask her.”

Hana tries not to burst out laughing. “Definitely don’t do that.”

“Why?”

She does her best to explain that sex is a private and taboo thing that you definitely don’t just ask someone about.

“Do you have sex?”  
“Man, what did I _just_ say?”

“Sorry. Do you?”

“Not yet.”

“Because you’re not an adult and one of your dads would kick something?”

“Pretty much.”

“What about two men? How do Jack and Gabe—”

“Okay, this conversation is over! Good night.”

Satya shrugs. “Good night.”

Hana turns off the lamp and steels herself for the nightmares.

 

She wakes up at about one in the morning, but not from her nightmare. She hears sniffling and whimpering, and turns to her side. Satya’s sitting up in bed, and through the darkness she can make out tears streaming down her face and a blanket shoved in her mouth.

“Satya?” she whispers. “What’s wrong?”

She shakes her head.

“I’m getting dad.”

“No!”

“Why not? What happened?”

“Promise you won’t tell?”

“Yeah, of course.”

“I had a nightmare.”

“Aww, poor baby. Come here.” She gently pulls Satya into a hug. She places her on her legs and wraps her arms around her, gently rubbing her back, the way her dads always did when she was younger. “What happened in it?”

“My dad found me here and dragged me back home. He turned into a monster and burned me.”

“Oh, that’s scary. Don’t worry, you’re safe with me. It was just a dream.”

She holds her silently for a few seconds, feeling her body wrack with crying breaths. “Why can’t I tell dad?”  
“When I had a nightmare back home and woke someone up my mom would yell and dad would hit.”

“Sweetie, my dad isn’t going to hurt you. He’ll hold you and tell you it’s all ok. Both of them will.”

“Just like you are?”

“I learned it from them.”

“It’s ok if I have nightmares?”

“Of course. I still have nightmares. A lot, actually.”

“You do? About what?”

“The car crash, mostly.”

“Do you wake up in the middle of the night crying?”

“Not crying, usually, but I get pretty scared sometimes.”

“And your dads don’t care?”

“They care a lot. They’re doing their best to make sure I don’t have them anymore.”

Satya sits with her for a couple more seconds before speaking. “Can I stay here?”

“As long as you want.”

She climbs off her and back into her bed. “I thought you wanted to stay,” Hana says.

“I meant in the house.”

“Oh. Of course you can.”

“What you did before, that was a hug, right?”

“Yeah…”

“Okay. I thought so. I read about it.”

Combined with the few hours of sleep she got, that comment’s enough to make her start tearing up again. “You haven’t been hugged before?”

“Maybe when I was really little.”

Her voice cracks. “Come back, I need to give you another one.”

“Okay.” she climbs back into her bed. “Why?”

“You’re seven and could barely recognize a hug.” She sniffles. “We need to make up for lost time.”

Hana embraces her again. Her ribs complain, but she doesn’t care.

“Are you crying?”

“A little.”

“Why?”

“I just can’t believe no one’s hugged you! I can’t imagine not being hugged for so long.”

“I like it. It feels nice.” They sit for a couple seconds. “Can I go back now?”

Hana lets her go.

“I like you a lot. You’re nicer than my real sister.”

Hana can’t help but smile, even though that comment also saddens her. “I like you a lot too.”

“You’re sure I can stay here?”

“Of course I’m sure. I can make you feel better when you have nightmares and you can make me feel better when I do.”

“Okay. Good night, Hana.”

“Good night, Satya.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Damn that was a lot longer than I thought it would be. Hope you enjoyed. Any comments are appreciated, be they criticism, predictions, memes, or paragraphs on paragraphs of Lorem Ipsum.


	4. Adoption

After Satya’s been in the house for ten days, Jack and Gabe take her out to breakfast by themselves. They sit across from her, and wait for their food to arrive before they broach their intended topic. When it does, they can’t help but notice that there are sever motor issues with her injured arm. She can still use it, but she has trouble even holding the fork properly. _We’ll have to get that taken care of,_ Gabe notes.

Jack starts the conversation. “Kiddo, do you know what adoption is?”

Her heart lurches, but she tries not to get too excited. “I think so. It’s when someone becomes the legal parent of a child that isn’t theirs. Like with Hana and Jesse and Sombra.”

“Exactly. Now, you’ve been living with us for a little while now. How’ve you liked it?” Gabe asks.

“A lot better than home.”

“You don’t mind sharing a room with Hana?”

“I like her a lot. She’s a lot nicer than my real sister.”

“You like Jesse and Sombra?”

“Yeah.”

“How about us?”

“Yeah.”

“Well that’s good. Satya, we want to adopt you,” Jack says.

“Really?” she forces herself to remain skeptical, but her face betrays her excitement.

“Really. We want you to be our daughter.”

“Forever?”

“Forever,” Gabe promises.

Her face falls. “Why?”

Both men frown. “What do you mean, why?”

“My dad always told me I was a freak. My mom told me how useless I was. Why would you want me?”

Worry lines start to appear in Jack’s forehead. Gabe takes her hands and looks into her eyes. She stares at the table. “Whatever your old dad said, ignore it. We haven’t even known you two weeks and we know you’re an awesome kid. We want to be your dads now, if you’ll take us.”

“You can’t take it back?”

“No,” Jack says. “And we wouldn’t ever want to.”

“And you’ll take care of me until I’m an adult?”

“As long as you need us to,” Jack promises.

“You won’t hit me?”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Gabe says.

“You won’t starve me?”

“Were they starving you over there?” Jack asks, slightly startled.

“Sometimes when I did something they didn’t like.”

“We would never.”

“Even if I did something bad?”

“The worst we’ve ever done is grounding, I think,” Gabe says. Jack nods in confirmation.

“Do… do you love me?”

“We’re starting to.”

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Okay. I want you to adopt me.”

Both men hug her, elated. As soon as they get home, they call a judge to schedule her adoption a week from that day.

 

Hana and Satya sit in their room on a lazy Sunday, neither of them bothering to leave the room before lunch. At about eleven, Hana’s cell phone rings.

“Hey!” she excitedly greets her girlfriend.

“Morning. How’ve you been doing?”

“Awesome, you?”

“Great. Did you get the song I sent you?”

“Yeah, I’ve listened to it like twelve times.”

“So you like it?”

“Love it.”

“Good, I wrote it for you.”

He smiles as she squeals excitedly into her phone. “So what are you doing today?” he asks.

“Nothing. Why? Rabbit movie binge? Gaming session?”

“Something like that. Look outside.”

 _No way…_ she looks out the window and her face lights up. She quickly changes out of her pajamas and tells Satya to come with her.

“I thought the whole point of a lazy Sunday was staying inside?”

“Change of plans, come on.” She gets up and follows her out onto the front lawn.

Lucio stands outside his car, smiling at her. She runs up and he hugs her, careful not to squeeze to hard and hurt her ribs. “What are you doing here?”

“Thought it would be fun to visit and finally hang out again.” He notices Satya. “Is this your new sister?”

“She will be soon!”

“Awesome! I’m Lucio, nice to meet you.” he extends his fist for a fist bump. She eyes it warily. “Come on, don’t leave me hanging.”

She turns to Hana. “I don’t understand.”

“It’s a fist bump. You bump your fist with his, like this.” she fist bumps him.

“Why?”

“It’s like a high five.”

She stares at her blankly. “I’ll explain later,” she says.

“Okay. See you tonight,” she says, and goes back inside.

“Weird kid,” Lucio notes.

“She’s really sweet, though.”

“Oh, no doubt. Come on, let’s go.”

She slides into the passenger’s seat. “Where are we headed?”

“Well, I drove past that dance studio on the way in, and they had a sign that said ‘walk-ins welcome’, if you’re interested. Maybe we could finally do that.”

“Yeah, let’s!”

He drives up main street and parks in the back, and they walk in and meet with an instructor. They spend a good two hours trying to learn to dance. Both of them are terrible, tripping over each other and often getting off beat, but they laugh and have fun nonetheless.

Since they can’t see each other that often, the couple makes sure they enjoy the day to the fullest. After leaving the studio, they go out to eat, then run off to the park for a while. It starts raining, so they get in his car and just drive around, listening to music and talking. When the rain starts to get unbearable, they find a movie theatre, and run inside under the pouring cascade. It’s even worse when the movie ends now thundering loudly, so they sprint back into his car and find a cafe to wait out the storm in.

 

“Alright, dad and I are going in for the last meeting with a social worker before the adoption. After this we’ll be good to go,” Jack says. “You two going to be alright alone with Satya?”

“Yeah, of course,” Sombra says.

“Alright. See you in a few hours.”

They are fine, for a little while, until the thunder starts. Satya’s eyes widen when she sees the lightning, and she whimpers a little when the thunder starts. It’s still far away, though, so she puts on the pair of headphones Hana gave her and tries to ignore it.

It takes about an hour, but soon the storm’s right above them. The lightning illuminates the whole sky, and the thunder shouts at her as if sick of her ignoring it.

“You alright?” Sombra asks. Satya shakes her head, afraid to speak. “What’s wrong?”

 _This isn’t my old home, this isn’t my old home, this isn’t my old home_ , she repeats in her head. They don’t punish fear here. “I’m scared,” she confesses.

“Aww, come here,” Sombra says. “It’s just noise.”

She walks over and cuddles up to Sombra. Her whole body tenses and she whimpers. Sombra rubs her back. “It’s gonna be ok.”

“I want Hana.”

“She’ll be back soon. We’re here for you.”

“No, I need Hana,” she repeats.

“Hana’s not here.”

“But… but… I need her!”

Blood tints her face and she looks ready to cry.

“It’ll be fine, Jesse and I are here for you.”

“No!”

Satya removes herself from Sombra and throws herself on the couch.

“Satya—”

“No!”

Jesse sighs. “I’m got it.” He calls Hana.

Within a couple minutes, Lucio and Hana are outside her house. “Sorry about this,” she says.

“It’s fine. It was an awesome day.”

“Definitely! Have to do this again soon.”

She kisses him, then opens the door and sprints inside through the rain.

“Hana!” Satya shouts, and runs for her. Hana picks her up and hugs her. “It’s okay, I got you.” She feels her shudder when thunder claps overhead. “I got you.”

 

_Hana: Hey_

_Hana: I just realized_

_Hana: I wasn’t afraid to get in a car with you_

_Lucio: I assume you knew I wasn’t going to kidnap you_

_Hana: lol_

_Hana: No but even when dad’s driving I still hate to be in cars since the accident_

_Hana: But I didn’t even think about it with you!_

 

It’s a sunny Friday afternoon. Satya’s new dads, siblings, aunt, uncle, and cousin meet outside the courthouse, all dressed up. “Fuckin’ hate formal wear,” Fareeha whispers.

“Hear you there,” Jesse says. “Not much longer, though.”

Their name is called, and they crowd inside. A judge sits behind a desk, and Satya and her dads stand in front. The rest of their party stands behind, watching. The judge asks Jack and Gabe to agree to take care of Satya until she becomes an adult, and they happily agree to. He reads off a little while longer (until Satya and Reinhardt and even some of the other kids become impatient), and finally, he gives the men a paper to sign.

“Congratulations, Mister and Mister Reyes-Morrison, you are now the legal guardians of Satya Reyes-Morrison.”

Both men hug her, and the rest of the room gets their turn. Hana’s last. “I love you, Satya. I’m so glad you’re with us.”

“I love you too.”

“Come on!” Hana turns around to give Satya a piggyback ride out of the building. She hops on and they sprint out towards the car.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, now that this part of the series is finished up, I'm not leaving it entirely (there's still a bunch I want to do in this universe) but there's another project I want to work on and a months-old project I've neglected. Updates on this series will slow but *probably* not stop.
> 
> ALSO if you have any suggestions I'd like to hear them because the next chapter idea I had takes place in September but I don't want to move on from summer and then wish I'd added something.

**Author's Note:**

> This chapter was a lot longer than I was anticipating, but here we go, Symmetra's here! Next chapters probably won't be as long. Probably. Comments and feedback are always appreciated! See you next chapter!


End file.
